Analogue’s Next Retro Game Console Is a 4K Nintendo 64

Retro gamers will likely perk their ears up at today’s news: Analogue is about to tackle the N64 as its first 3D console recreation. And the retro gaming company is doing so with higher-end technology than ever before.

The Analogue 3D game system was announced this morning with a vague release window of “2024,” zero official images, and a huge veil over its technical details. Thankfully, we managed to get Analogue CEO Christopher Taber to talk about what exactly the Analogue 3D will deliver whenever it launches–and the resulting conversation is quite frank.

“Reimagining the N64 with 100 percent compatibility and accuracy, and what I know is necessary for it to be just like the experience we all had when we first played it in the context it was created for (CRTs, namely), is not something anyone has achieved, not even close to,” Taber says. And after “three years” of hardware development, Analogue has created its first 4K TV-compatible system–which Taber says will include “by far the most powerful and expensive” internal technology in the company’s history.

Analogue, for the uninitiated, has spent the past decade building HDTV-friendly versions of classic gaming systems, with original hardware accuracy as a selling point. (Paste has previously reported on 2021’s Analogue Pocket and 2018’s Analogue Super NT.) If you don’t mind the images or sounds of an old game being a bit off, or you don’t care whether you are using an original disc or cartridge, Analogue is probably overkill; you have options ranging from official, licensed emulation services (particularly Nintendo Switch Online) to dubious emulation apps and devices.

That ecosystem of software emulation differs from Analogue’s approach: hardware emulation, powered by FPGA (field programmable gate array) systems. In the simplest terms, a multipurpose FPGA can be coded to recreate every single function, processing speed, and quirk of an older computer or game system, then translate the results to modern TV signals. (Comparatively, should you connect an original, unmodified NES to a newer TV, you can expect an ugly picture, laggy button responses, and other issues.)

As gamer nostalgia expands from the simpler games of the ‘80s to the 3D worlds of the ‘90s, software emulation runs into harsher limits. Take this year’s headline-grabbing launch of N64 classic Goldeneye 007 on Nintendo Switch Online: it’s frankly a rough conversion, weighed down by issues with sounds, music, graphics, speed, and bugs, even after an update that came months later. This all from the company that owns all the original N64 hardware and software schematics and code!

To that end, Taber suggests that Nintendo can’t do much better with this and other problematic N64 software on an emulation front, even if Nintendo made an “N64 Classic” in line with its previous, mega-popular NES Classic and SNES Classic systems. “The nature of how [N64] software emulation functions with even the most powerful components–it isn’t possible,” he argues. “It will inevitably result in a subpar experience.”

Hence, the Analogue 3D: an N64-like console that plugs into modern TVs, accepts original N64 cartridges from any region, and includes four original N64 controller ports. Taber suggests its price, currently unannounced, will be “in the range of all of our other systems,” even though its parts cost sounds like it will be higher than prior systems that have retailed for $179-249.

Much of Analogue 3D’s development muscle went into its traditional process of making a general-purpose FPGA board fake like a classic console (and that development staff is, like with other Analogue projects, led by Kevin “kevtris” Horton). Analogue found that the N64’s hardware demands necessitated a new hardware baseline. Taber doesn’t clarify whether a specific FPGA board or supplier has yet been picked, other than to say Analogue 3D’s board will include “an order of magnitude greater amount of LE’s, fabric speed and more” compared to the Cyclone V found in many Analogue systems.

Taber insists that the FPGA specs in question are necessary to do more than recreate N64 games’ 2D and 3D worlds. “This generation of videogames is where its context starts to really become important,” Taber says. “All of the videogame systems designed within this era were made to be played on a CRT. N64 games have mixed asset resolutions, amongst many other things. Scaling early 3D games for modern televisions is radically more complicated than 2D games.”

It’s here where Taber begins to froth at the mouth about Analogue 3D’s jump from standard HDTV pixel resolutions of 1080p to the 4K standard of 2160p.

“This is why 4K is so important for 3D games,” he says. “FPGA plus 4K equals 100 percent control over everything, in every detail. Analogue 3D performs like a masterful fucking orchestra—a symphony—because, again, everything is designed from scratch, in house, with complete control over every dynamic. Therefore every nuance is able to be calibrated to an unprecedented degree. To me, it’s either this, or buy a fucking original N64 and a CRT. End of story.”

Sadly, Taber has yet to roll out video proof of what Analogue 3D’s 4K “video filters” will look like, or exactly how they’ve been calibrated to best resemble the scanlines, color aberration, deinterlacing, and other quirks of older, bulkier TVs. And as far as CRT TVs famously having zero button-tap lag, Taber insists that Analogue 3D will uphold the company’s reputation for reduced-lag gaming on modern TVs.

Taber suggests an “early 2024” reveal of many more details about Analogue 3D. That includes the form factor, which Taber insists is complete and “in production.” For now, we did our best to corner Taber and squeeze out as many confirmed details about the N64-mimicking system as we can, all listed below:

Some readers will come to this report with a sour taste in their mouths, thanks to long-teased software features for the Analogue Pocket that were announced and advertised by Analogue, only to have their estimated launch windows blow past without public recognition. When pressed on these previously advertised features–including “video filters” for openFPGA and “DAC” support for Analogue Dock–Taber simply suggests that “Analogue OS” will be released by “the end of this year.” He also insists that production capacity for existing Analogue products is in no way bumped or affected by production of Analogue 3D, arguably because it targets an entirely different FPGA board, and points to a recent announcement that the oft sold-out Analogue Pocket will receive a substantial restock by year’s end.

While Analogue 3D sounds tantalizing, the 3D era of FPGA gaming has become more heated thanks to the MiSTer, an alternate FPGA product that relies entirely on community development for its console-specific “cores.” In the past year, this product, which requires substantial user tinkering and building, has received support for increasingly accurate PlayStation 1, Saturn, and N64 game playback. Similarly, a brand-new FPGA system, dubbed MARS, has been announced with its own advertised 4K support and higher specs, though this has come from a group with zero proven commercial launches.

Taber offers a respectful response to this competition: “I’m stoked to see the other developments in the FPGA community, regardless of their high price and pretty radical DIY nature.” It doesn’t do much to distract from his focus on N64 recreation, however: “[For someone else] to make an ‘N64 Mini,’ it’d have to be with a reproduction of the original ASICs, an FPGA, and in 4K, with Original Display Modes recreating not just the video game system but the other critical contextual pieces. To be frank, this is the bare minimum necessity for the 3D generation of videogame systems to not feel aged, generally ‘off,’ not as good as we remembered. Analogue 3D is a fucking lightning bolt from the bare minimum.”